Currently on view at Max Wigram Gallery, London is “ij,” a solo exhibition by John Houck. Consisting of fourteen new works from the “Aggregates” series, the exhibition represents a new development in Houck’s practice. A suite of seven large, chromatically subtle “Aggregates”, is interspersed by small scale works in saturated colors, in a rhythmic alternation of color and size.

John Houck’s practice is informed by an interest in the dialectic between desire and repetition in our hyper-industrialized culture. Houck refers in particular to Bernard Stiegler’s notion that a loss of life affirming desire or libido is connected to the repetition and loss of individuation that characterizes our society. Houck explores these concerns through the combination of repetitive digital and analogue processes, as exemplified in the Aggregates. The title of the exhibition is a direct nod to this core theme of repetition, and to Houck’s own experience as a software programmer: the letters “ij” are the first two variable names used in programming for a double nested loop, and the letter “i” specifically is a common variable name in computer science for iterative code.